A major sugar company has been accused of harmful environmental practices while claiming to be a leader in the fight against the climate crisis, in a class-action lawsuit filed on Wednesday.

Florida Crystals, one of the US’s biggest sugar firms, and its parent company, the Fanjul Corporation, are accused of deceiving consumers and endangering public health by continuing to use environmentally harmful pre-harvest burning.

The accusations come while the firm has been branding its products as the nation’s eco-friendly sugar option, according to the lawsuit filed in the US district court for the northern district of California.

According to the court filing, the sugar company’s leaf-burning practices “emit substantial volumes of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change as well as toxic particulate matter (PM2.5), dioxins, carbon monoxide, ammonia, elemental carbon, and volatile organic compounds that fill the air of the Florida Glades region on a daily basis during the six-to-eight-month harvesting season, poisoning local residents, who are disproportionately poor and people of color.”

In order to remove excess leaves before harvesting, sugarcane growers have two options: slashing, also known as green harvesting – which is cleaner but requires investment in machinery – or burning, which is cheaper on the front end but causes harm to the environment and public health.

Yet Florida Crystals, in partnership with the Fanjul Corporation, markets itself as the country’s most environmentally conscious and climate-friendly sugar company, the lawsuit alleges.

“Defendants label and advertise Florida Crystals products as ‘Farming to Help Save the Planet’ with farms that ‘help fight climate change [and] build healthy soils.’ Defendants bolster these claims with similar misrepresentations on their sugar products’ packaging as well as on consumer-targeted websites and social media, touting Florida Crystals’ supposed commitment to fighting climate change and protecting the environment through programs like regenerative farming and using barn owls to control rodent populations.

“Consumers are being deceived,” the lawsuit claims.

“This is a clearcut case of greenwashing,” said Bahar Sodaify, partner at Clarkson Law Firm, which is representing the plaintiffs.

Three of the world’s top five cane sugar-producing countries – Brazil, India and Thailand – are among multiple countries to have banned or severely restricted burning. For the past decade, some Glades residents have been campaigning to end cane burning. A 2022 Florida State University study linked the ash from sugarcane burning with up to five preventable deaths each year.

An estimated third of residents in the affected Glades region live in poverty. This stands in contrast to the sugar companies’ billionaire owners and wealthy neighbors in eastern counties, who in 1991 convinced the Florida state government to ban cane-burning when the winds blow in their direction. “No such restriction protects the largely black and brown communities of the Glades,” according to the lawsuit.

In the lawsuit, plaintiffs are calling on Florida Crystals, a Delaware-registered corporation, and the Florida-headquartered Fanjul Corporation to stop deceiving consumers about their climate and environmental credentials, in addition to restitution for buying their sugar products based on false claims made on labels.

The lawsuit is filed in California, where the defendants do business and receive substantial benefits and income, it is claimed.

The company has been contacted for comment.

In 2024 the Fanjul Corporation spent almost $3m on federal election campaign donations, the vast majority to Republican causes, as well as another $900,000 on lobbying, according to Open Secrets.